In his junior year at Rancho Bernardo (Calif.) High School, left-hander Cole Hamels broke the humerus bone in his pitching arm. A year later, teams were still leery of Hamels going into the 2002 draft.

Pittsburgh, with the first overall pick, took right-hander Bryan Bullington of Ball State. He went 1-9 in 26 major league appearances.

The Rangers, with the 10th overall pick, took shortstop Drew Meyer of South Carolina. He had 14 major-league at bats.

Philadelphia, with the 17th overall pick, selected Hamels primarily because of an advanced changeup. Oakland went one spot ahead of the Phillies and started its celebrated Moneyball draft by choosing Ohio State outfielder Nick Swisher.

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Hamels has a no-hitter among his 136 major league wins. He had made four All-Star appearances and finished among the top eight in the Cy Young voting four times. At age 24, he was named Most Valuable Player in the 2008 World Series.

The irony is that the pitcher whose draft status slipped because of concerns that he was fragile has been a standard of durability. Hamels is tied for the major league lead in 200-plus inning seasons since 2008 with eight. He is always there.

He does it with an assortment of five pitches -- two- and four-seam fastball, knuckle-curveball, changeup and cutter -- and a fanatical devotion to preparation and conditioning. Hamels may be the most fine-tuned athlete on the Rangers.

A scout with an American League club was asked for his report on Hamels.

"Efficient lefty whose outstanding feel to pitch is only matched by the quality of his repertoire and competitive drive," the scout said.

No dirty slides

Hamels belongs to a small group: Starters who do not use the slider.

According to fangraphs.com, of the 71 major league qualifiers, 48 used the slider for at least five percent of their pitchers. Boston's David Price, St. Louis' Adam Wainwright and Kyle Hendricks of the Chicago Cubs join Hamels in the no-slider group.

Hamels' high school arm injury figured in his decision to avoid the slider. There was concern that the slider would put undue stress on the arm.

He has stayed remarkably healthy. Hamels has never missed time during a season because of surgery as a pro. He has been on the disabled list four times in 11 years, with a longest stay of 33 days.

Hamels also became comfortable early with the curveball. When he joined the Phillies, their organizational belief was throwing the slider and the curveball produced two mediocre breaking pitches. The Phillies stressed being good with one breaking pitch.

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Mr. Up and Down

Most pitchers focus on controlling two quadrants: Inside and outside corners. Hamels goes two better. According to major league scouts, Hamels works up and down, too. That enables him to get more strikes and outs on pitches outside the zone than most pitchers, according to scouts.

Hamels uses the four-seam fastball to pitch high in the zone. His velocity is only average, at 91.5 mph over the last five years according to fangraphs.com, but the pitch ties up hitters with late movement.

"With any of us, if you don't throw 97-plus, we have to have that late explosiveness on our fastballs," Hamels said. "But you have to be able to locate it. Otherwise, the ball will be going all over the plate, and you'll be out of there quick."

Hamels can go low with the sinking two-seam fastball and lower with the changeup, his best pitch since high school. He uses the "circle change" grip, with the thumb and index finger forming a circle on the side of the baseball. The pitch is thrown with the arm action of a fastball. The grip makes the pitch die near the plate, fading from right-handed hitters.

As an amateur, Hamels patterned himself after Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame left-hander Tom Glavine, who featured the fastball-changeup combination. He has turned out to be more of a strikeout pitcher than Glavine.

According to the Pitchf/x system, Cole Hamels has had the most effective changeup among qualifying major leaguers over the last five seasons in terms of runs saved. The list:

Pitcher

Runs

Cole Hamels

+80

Felix Hernandez

+68.2

Chris Sale

+54.2

Jason Vargas

+45.8

Alex Cobb

+43.8

SOURCE: fangraphs.com

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

PHOENIX, AZ - JULY 12: National League All-Stars Cliff Lee #33 and Cole Hamels #35 of the Philadelphia Phillies line up before the start of the 82nd MLB All-Star Game at Chase Field on July 12, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Advice from Cliff Lee

Early in Hamels' career, he had a problem with left-handed hitters. From 2006-09, left-handed hitters averaged a homer every 22.4 at-bats against him. In the same span, right-handed hitters averaged a homer every 31.3 at-bats.

The problem was that Hamels was a two-pitch pitcher: Fastball and changeup. Left-handed hitters learned to wait for the changeup, which would drift into their hitting zone.

The solution came from fellow left-hander Cliff Lee, during his first stay with the Phillies in 2009. Lee introduced Hamels to the cutter. It was thrown like a fastball, but the grip gave it the compact movement of the old "nickel" curveball. The velocity was between the fastball and the changeup, and the movement was opposite of the changeup.

By the following spring training, Hamels was ready to include the cutter into his repertoire. Since then, he has held left-handed hitters to a homer every 46.5 at-bats while pitching in two home parks that favor hitters. The cutter has also become his pitch of choice when needing a ground ball.

A look at Cole Hamels' performance against left-handed hitters before and since adding the cutter:

Seasons

Average

OPS

2006-09

.245

.733

2010-16

.232

.650

'Every day is a good health day'

When Hamels reached the majors with Philadelphia in 2006, he was dealing with a herniated back disc. Hamels tried the normal treatments in addition to massages and acupuncture.

When Hamels got his first big contract -- $15 million for 2012 -- he took the extraordinary step of hiring a chiropractor. The chiropractor meets Hamels to work with him the day before a start and goes with him for more treatment the day after a start.

The treatment has made a significant difference, Hamels has said.

Before using the chiropractor, Hamels was in pain the day after pitching and could not follow his weight-lifting program. Now, Hamels dives into his day-after work, and he has become stronger with age. Every day is a good-health day, Hamels has said.

A look at the leaders in WAR -- wins above replacement -- among major league starters since 2010: